Tid Bits :)

So I forgot to mention what happened when I came home last night.  Right in front of the door hopped a little toad.  It scared the crap out of me!  Remember that this happened at night, so it was dark.  It kept jumping into the door, like it was trying to get inside the house.  If I opened the door, I knew the little toad would hop right inside, so there I was stuck outside.  I tried going through the front door, but I knew it would be locked.  So I finally got up the courage and very quickly opened the door and booked it inside.  Luckily I made it in without the toad getting inside either.  As I was rapidly coming through the door, there sat Sheryl at the dinner table with a very surprised look on her face wondering what in the world had just happened.  When I explained it to her she started laughing.  Dang, now that I'm thinking about it, I should have taken a picture of the toad.  That same night I went up to bed and decided to see if they had any free movies on YouTube.  They do have movies but I swear they are all a bunch of B movies.  All the good ones cost money.  I was actually able to find a favorite.  "Road to Bali" with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.  Love it :) Then that night I had the strangest dream.  In the dream I was sent home from Boston and was basically replaced by another PCA that Mark and Sheryl had found.  When I got back to Utah, I was left wondering why I was sent home in the first place.  I had no idea what I had done wrong and I felt like I had failed.  Then I was also mad because I got home after Snow College had started, so I didn't even have a chance to go back to school.  Weirdest dream ever!  I asked Reed about it later.  He said he thinks it means I'm stressed out about everything.  I'm stressed that I won't do a good job at work and I'm also stressed that I won't do good in school with the online classes.  I thought this was very interesting that he said this because its so true!!  Anyway, then today when I was driving home from church, another toll booth worker talked to me!  Maybe this is a common thing that happens in Boston that I am not aware of because this is the second time it has happened.  So I pulled up to pay my $1.65 and he said, "wow, oh my goodness.  Hello beautiful... what's your name?"  I said, "Camille..."  he said, "hello Camille.  My name is Mark.  How are you today?"  As I was rummaging around for cash I said, "Good.  Oh darn I only have a twenty.  So sorry."  Then he jokingly said, "Oh Camille nothing else?  No fives or tens?"  I said, "Nope sorry."  "Well you have a nice day.  It was nice to meet you."  "Thank you I said."  I have to admit that this guy wasn't as creepy as the last one.  He was younger, big African American... probably in his mid or late thirties.  I have to keep reminding myself that I'll never see these people again so it doesn't really matter :) Although, I do have to say that it is kind of nice when people find you attractive.  Moving on... I am starting online classes this Wednesday and I am kind of nervous about it.  But more than anything I'm sad that I'm not going back to Snow College.  I text Molly tonight and asked if she was back in Ephraim and she said yes.  I was homesick for College.  I wanted to be back there with her and Whit.  I didn't think that not going back would affect me at all, but it totally has!  I miss it.  I remember Dad saying to me last year before actually going to Snow in the first place that I would have the time of my life at school.  He said I would have so much fun that I wouldn't even want to come home.  At the time I didn't believe him at all.  I remember being so afraid and looking forward to the times that I would be able to go back home on the weekends.  Well he ended up being so right!  I had the time of my life!  It was a huge blessing to meet Molly and Whit.  Seriously if I had not met them, my year would have been horrible.  I would have been stuck in my prison cell dorm with a roommate that likes to draw sharpie tattoos of weird looking dragons all over her boyfriend's back.  I would have had to watch as they engaged in "tickle" fights... very interesting.  I would have also had to eat the same food everyday for the entire year in the badger den.  But because of meeting Molly and Whit,  I honestly could not have asked for a better school year.  I remember it was exactly a year and one day ago Dad, Mom, Savanna and Ken dropped me off at my Dorm.  It was unbelievably hard when it was time to say goodbye!  It was even so hard that we decided to go to Walmart first, buy a fan, and then drop me off.  I cried and my family cried.  I remember that day thinking how exciting it would be when the last day of school arrived.  My family would come pick me up with all my stuff and we would happily drive home.  Well the next day was Sunday.  Later in the evening after church, I called home crying because I was so homesick.  I didn't think I would make it through that day, or the next day... but I did make it.  Skip ahead to the last day of spring semester (which was about four months ago).  I was dreading the last week of school because I knew it would be the last week I would ever be in Ephraim ever again.  I packed up my car, said goodbye to Molly and Whit, and bawled my eyes out as I drove out of Ephraim.  Then I cried the rest of the way home.  Well now here I am in Boston and I feel like the exact same thing has happened again.  I dreaded coming out to Boston.  Like going to Snow, I knew it was the right thing to do.  I cried saying goodbye to my family.  I looked forward to the day I would return to them.  At first the homesickness felt unbearable, but now as the days move forward, even though it still comes, it comes less and less.  It is amazing though.  Already from this experience I have learned so much!  I have learned how real and how amazing the atonement is.  I've learned to rely on the Lord.  I have learned that it will all work out.  So even though I am so sad that I will not be going back to Snow this next school year, I know that good times lay ahead.  Already I've done amazing things that I would have never dreamed of doing before.  I've met Reed who is an amazing person and a great friend, I went to six flags, California, four different major league baseball stadiums, I've seen Boston, I've gone sailing, I've met incredible people and have gone to an amazing ward.  I can't complain about this experience because it truly is a once in a lifetime experience.  Don't worry, come May, I'll let you know what I'm feeling at the end of the Boston story.  To be continued...

Ah Life :)

Well let me think of things that have happened since my last post... A couple of weeks ago I found out my computer wasn't working for online classes.  When I tried logging into blackboard it would come up saying an error has occurred.  Boy did that stress me out!  I called Snow College's computer department which did and did not help.  The first lady I called, I explained how the problem only occurred on my computer and that I was able to log in on other computers just fine.  She then told me the obvious answer which I already knew.  "Oh there is something wrong with your computer.  You will need to get that fixed.  Good thing you found that out before classes started!" In the back of my head I'm thinking... duh!  So then the next two guys I called they didn't answer.  Then the last guy I called, if I had just listened to him in the first place, it would have saved me a load of stress!  He told me the things to check were uploading the latest adobe, check window settings, and download the latest java.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I only checked the window settings.  So I talked to Reed and he said he had a computer friend that could possibly look at it.  I text my home teacher and asked if he knew anyone in the ward that was big into computers.  He found someone for me.  Long story short, I took my computer to church and the girl (Aubrey) couldn't really look at it because we didn't have the Internet at that moment.  So she said to just email her so we could set up a time to do it later.  Reed's friend came over for fhe with his family, but they had to hurry and leave and didn't have time to look at it so he said if I needed help later in the week to just give him a call.  Reed said he would look at it to see if he could fix the problem.  Well Reed couldn't figure out the problem so he said he would call his friend.  His friend didn't answer.  During all this time I am just stressed out!  What ended up happening was Reed and I figured out how to upgrade Java.  I did that and the problem was fixed.  If I had just listened to the dang snow computer guy in the first place I would have been better off!  I guess many lessons can be learned from this experience.  Technology problem #2... Two Sunday's ago I get in my car to come home from church.  This particular Sunday was absolutely wonderful!  It was fast Sunday so testimony meeting was amazing.  During church I was able to pay my tithing which was such a blessing!  Also during church I got a new perspective on trials.  So I was just feeling really really good and probably the best I'd felt in the last couple of days (keep in mind this was during the time of the computer incident).  So I get in the car, turn on my GPS and what comes up?  A blank white screen with a little black dot, and the words "press black dot."  After pressing the black dot like fifty times, nothing happened!  I turned it on and off and on and off and still the screen stayed the same.  I became filled with anger.  I was mad that I just had an amazing time at church and then something like this happens!  I didn't even know if I knew the way home.  Well I made it home without the GPS that day.  So the next day I packaged it up and took it back to Walmart.  Problem #1... I lost the receipt.  problem #2... I paid for the GPS with cash!  Well Walmart said they couldn't do anything about it because they have some dumb policy where they don't take back electronics after fifteen days of the purchase.  So here I was stuck with a broken GPS.  I called Garmin and waited on the phone for fifteen minutes.  The guy was actually very helpful.  He had me try downloading something on to my computer to update my GPS.  That process took like thirty minutes.  That ended up not even working so he said I could do whats called a "nu for nu."  I send back my GPS and show proof that I bought it in like the last 90 days and they send me back a brand new GPS.  Well I didn't have the receipt so he said the next best thing he could do was have me send in my GPS and they would send me back a refurbished GPS.  He said I wouldn't even be able to tell a difference.  So I was all for it.  No instructions were given on how to send back the GPS, so I packaged it up in the box with all the accessories and sent it back.  Four days later I get an email from Garmin with instructions on how to send back the GPS.  They specifically said in the email to only send back the GPS and nothing else.  Well it would have been nice to know this before sending it away!  So once again I had to call up Garmin (only waited like three minutes this time which was nice) and tell them my situation of how I sent everything back.  The lady was able to help me out, so hopefully when I do get my GPS back that it will have the accessories with it!  In the mean time, I am still waiting for my GPS.  The next Sunday I had to drive to church without a GPS and luckily I did fine.  On my way to church I caught a glimpse of a sign that I'd never seen before, so I decided to take a picture of it....

So it's hard to read... it was quite a bit a way.



 Today I had to drive into Boston WITHOUT a GPS.  Boy did it stress me out!  Getting there was actually not even a problem because I arrived in the afternoon.  Getting home was a little more challenging but I'll get to that in a second.  First let me explain what I did in Boston.  As I mentioned before, Aubrey was going to help me with my computer problem... but then that problem got fixed.  So I decided to see if she would still want to hang out.  I'm so glad we did because it was so much fun!  We went sailing on the Charleston River.  Aubrey just got her sailing card back in July so she can take people out sailing.  It was so much fun being out on the river.  Something about being out on the water is just so relaxing.  After, we took the T to her apt, ate dinner and then watched a movie.  She wanted to go to bed early which I had no problem with because I did not want to be driving late at night without a GPS.  I road the T by myself (first time by myself) back to my car which took about thirty minutes.  That ended up not even being the hard part.  I set the route in my phone GPS and it came up saying that it couldn't connect.  I tried a couple of times and it still wasn't working!  So I said a quick prayer, turned it off, turned it on, and it worked.  Amazing how prayer works.  Right out of the gate the same exact thing that happened to me the first time happened again!  I missed a turn, and ended up driving a little bit all over the place.  I got the sick feeling in my stomach again, but this time I stayed calmer.  I was able to find my way back to I-90 and then made it home safe and sound!  HF really does look out.  Overall it was a very very fun day! 

So this is a picture of a one-thousand piece puzzle that Reed, Sheryl, Mark, and myself assembled.  It took three days but we got it done!  The third day, Sheryl and Reed worked on in for a couple of hours and then I worked on it for four hours straight by myself and finished it!  It was very hard, but actually really fun :) I'm ready for another one! 



So Good! So Good! So Good!

I finally made it to a Red Sox game!  Baseball games are so much fun to go to :) and plus this is the fourth baseball stadium I've been to in two months.  The Red Sox played the Indians and lost... but it was still lots of fun.  We got to our seats early and Reed told me to go down by the field and try and get a ball during batting practice.  I felt kind of dumb, but right when I went down one was hit right to me!  Its thanks to Reed that I caught, or picked up a ball that was hit during batting practice!  So cool!  Another part that I highly enjoyed was the singing of "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond.  It's really cool because the entire crowd sings a long during the chorus and they say "So Good" three times in a row.  Overall it was a very fun experience :)

One of these days I won't look awkward in a dang picture!!

Batting Practice :)

I really should have this picture in my "Lost in Boston" post because I literally drove right by this shot!

Shakespear in the Park :)

New friends + Ten dollar parking + Mike's Pastry = A fun night watching a Shakespeare play at Boston Commons.   

This is a picture of the stage.  The play we saw was "All's Well that Ends Well."

New Friends and a funny looking face :)

It was such a fun night!  Who knew Shakespeare could be so great!